


Hard Pass

by bewaretheboojum



Series: Hard Season [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Jason cussin', M/M, Makeouts, Mentions of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 10:34:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13386009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewaretheboojum/pseuds/bewaretheboojum
Summary: Summary: AU – Tim's Red Robin. Jay's a detective in the GCPD, Tim likes to help him. They're, like, mid-20's.





	Hard Pass

If it wasn't for the goddamned blow to the head he took a few hours earlier, Jason was sure he would have woken up the minute Red Robin had snuck through his window. As it was, it wasn't until the guy was leaning over his bed looking at some read out that projected up from his gauntlet that Jason startled awake.

“Jesus – what?” he sputtered as he sat up in bed and looked at Red Robin in surprise. 

Even before Jason had joined the force he hadn’t had much use for vigilantes. Batman didn’t feed the poor, he didn’t offer jobs to guys trying to go straight, he didn’t even keep the bad guys off the street long enough to keep Jay’s neighborhood safe. To Jason, the guy seemed like an arrogant douchebag.

Jason had seen him once, a week after his last stint in juive, roughing up a low level dealer in Jay’s old neighborhood. The poor guy was only selling to keep his kid in diapers. It had left a bad taste in Jason’s mouth. In a contrary sort of way, that whole experience had been what made him want to make things right in his old stomping grounds, the honest way. So he’d finished school, hopped into the academy and spent the rest of the next few years beating the Bats to every punch he possibly could. 

Until Red Robin.

Red… Red was different.

Red was smart. Red was even kind, in a clinical sort of way. Red solved problems with his brains, not his fists and the guy actually seemed to care about the people, not the crimes. He looked for solutions, not problems. He worked with the police, offering them evidence before he ever stepped in himself. He had been feeding Jay’s precinct tips for months, all of which had checked out in various ways. Everything by the book. Everything neat and detailed and precise. Printouts and surveillance footage all packed into neat little envelopes that Jason would find on his desk, or on his chair, or in his car. 

So when he left Jason a note offering him details on a case Jay had been working that had gone cold over a year ago… 

Well, Jason didn’t mind taking the help. Even if it was from a Bat. 

They had been working together for months now. Late night stakeouts, reviewing security footage, working the case one small clue at a time that lead them closer and closer to…

To each other, more than anything else, actually. The case still hadn’t really heated up yet. The way Jason felt about Red, on the other hand... That had absolutely heated up. 

There was a tension between them that Jay was pretty sure Red was feeling too. Though the guy tried much harder to hide it than Jason did. 

That morning, Red left him another one of those neat little packages on the seat of his car with pictures of a warehouse full the type of weapons that crew Jay had been tracking had used in their crimes. The pictures were old, time stamped almost two years ago, but there had been an address in the packet. Jason had decided to just swing by the place before signed off his shift for the night. 

According to Red’s notes the warehouse had been bought and sold four times in the past two years. Jay had expected the place to be empty, or maybe filled with whatever crap the new owner had decided to stock up on.

He hadn’t expected 6 guys angry guys with very big guns who didn’t much care for cops. Things had devolved pretty quickly. Jason was lucky Red had shown up when he did.

Red Robin was still in the same uniform he had been wearing when he swooped down and saved Jason's ass about 6 hours before. The blood and mud that had splattered on it earlier had dried, and there was a new tear down the side, but it was clear the guy hadn't gone home to rest after he had broken up the Kick-Detective-Todd's-Ass-Jamboree from earlier.

“How's your head, Detective Todd?” Red Robin asked, his voice somehow much softer than it sounded on the street.

“'M OK. Just a headache.”

“Yeah, I'm thinking you don't have a concussion. Your vitals look normal.” Red Robin replied distractedly scanning the read out.

“Hey, no peeking,” Jason teased and reached up to pass a hand through the projected read out. “If you want to check my vitals, you need to do it the old fashioned way, Red.”

Red Robin looked up at Jason and a small smile quirked the the corner of his mouth.

“Hard pass, Detective.”

“'Hard pass?' I like the sound of that...”

Red Robin breathed out an inaudible laugh, shaking his head and looking off to the side.

The guy was cute.

“You'll be happy to hear that those guys who roughed you up somehow mysteriously ended up zip-stripped to some particularly pungent outhouses in the West Gotham bar district with video recordings of their crimes stuck in their pockets...” Red Robin said, clearly trying to dodge the flirting.

“Yeah, I heard about that. I got a call from my partner before I zonked out. She also mentioned none of them had shoes... Want to talk me though that?”

Red Robin just raised one eyebrow and silently smirked.

Jason laughed, palming a few painkillers and reaching for a bottle of water.

“You know what? I think it's probably better if I don't know.”

“Plausible deniability is a wonderful thing,” Red Robin agreed with nod.

“Yeah, that’s starting to become my motto, these days.”

Red Robin pursed his lips and tilted his head slightly. He hesitated for a moment before looking directly in Jason's eyes.

“I do want you to know I appreciate you working with me on this case. I'm sorry that I--”

Jason cut him off.

“Hey man, what happened tonight wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have shown up to that warehouse without backup. You swooped in just in time and saved my butt.”

“I gave you the tip that lead you to--”

Jason waved his arm in a dismissive gesture.

“I'm a big boy. I make my own decisions.”

“I know, I'm just...” Red paused before shaking his head and taking a deep breath. “I'm not used to working closely with someone who isn't wearing state of the art body armor. Or someone who hasn't had extensive lessons in escape artistry. Or--”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. You’re used to hanging with the big guns.”

“I’m not saying you’re not a--” Red Robin started, then trailed off, eyes darting away from Jason’s face as he blushed.

“Were you just about to say something about my big gun, pretty bird?” Jason drawled.

Red Robin shook his head and huffed out a laugh, not able to stop the smile that spread across his face.

“This may be the first time in my life I’ve found dick jokes reassuring,” Red Robin said, still smiling. “I really am relieved you’re ok.”

“Oh, I’ve got more than just dick jokes for you, beautiful.” Jason hummed.

This time Jason got an audible laugh out of the guy. 

Even with the dirt smudged across his face, dark the circles ringing his eyes, and the one long scratch down his left cheek, Red had a beautiful smile. He never looked directly at Jason when he smiled. It was always a shy and half crooked sort of thing, as if the guy couldn’t bring himself to smile with his whole mouth. His lips twitched with silent laughter as his eyes crinkled at the edges.

Before he even realized what he was doing, Jason had reached out and grabbed Red’s forearm. He had a split second to enjoy the momentary look of surprise that crossed Red’s face as Jason pulled him down. Red caught himself with his other arm, bracing his weight on the bed next to the side of Jason’s head as leaned over Jason’s prone form. 

“Detec--”

Jason broke off Red’s excliminaton of protest with a kiss. Pressing his lips to Red’s still open mouth, Jason exhaled against Red’s parted lips and went in for a deeper kiss. 

Red stiffened in Jason’s arms for a moment before melting into the kiss. Mouth soft, tongue hot, a hand reached up to card through Jason’s hair as Red leaned forward and took control of the kiss. Red’s lips played against Jason’s own as he gasped out a breath and made a soft broken sound that went straight to Jason’s dick and made his grip tighten on Red’s forearm. 

Moaning into the kiss, Jason tugged harder, trying to pull Red down on top of him. Red gasped and pulled back, breaking the kiss and pushing up off of the bed, backing away from Jason.

“Hey, Red--” Jason husked softly, watching the man move cautiously away from him. Even with the mask, Jay could see that Red’s eyes were wide and shocky.

“This-- I shouldn’t have come here. I should have--”

“No, Red. I’m glad you did, I wanted to see you. I wanted to tell you--”

“I’m glad you’re ok,” Red interrupted, his voice stronger now, more firm. Nodding, sharply to Jason, he half heartedly waved his hand in a fast goodbye as he ducked out Jason’s window and disappeared into the night.

Jason let himself fall back, hard, against his pillows and then breathed out a cuss as his aching skull sparked with a new wave of pain.

“Jesus,” he hissed and closed his eyes tight against the pain. “Way to go, Jay. Not only did you scare off the skittish bird but you also bang your big dumb head for the fifteenth time tonight. You’re a fucking genius, big guy.”

In his rush to escape Jason’s room, Red had left the window open. Jason levered himself up off of his bed and staggered over the window. The cool night breeze blew through his hair as Jason looked out his apartment window onto the dimly lit Gotham streets below. There was no sign of Red, flittering off through the distance. He was long gone.

The guy could move fast when he wanted to. 

Sighing, Jason slouched in the window looking out across the sky, wondering what the fuck he was going to do now.


End file.
